Review of Handbook of Mineralogy. II. Silica, Silicates.

From the Canadian Mineralogist (1995) 33, 1155.

by Thomas Feininger, Centre géoscientifique de Québec.

This is the second volume (published in two parts that total 904 pages) of a proposed five-volume series to cover the mineral kingdom. The first volume (Elements, Sulfides, Sulfosalts) was published in 1990 and reviewed in the Canadian Mineralogist (29, 175-176; the reader is referred to that review for background information that I shan’t repeat here).

The volume opens with two pages of Acknowledgements. Here, on the fifth line, I found the sole typographical error to catch my eye. It should be Cornelis Klein (Cornelius was his co-worker of many years at Harvard). A ten-page Introduction follows, and includes a table of the chemical elements and a summary of the recent (1978) IMA nomenclature of amphiboles. One then passes directly to the minerals, which are arranged alphabetically, each on a single page, from abswurmbachite to lamprophyllite (in part 1) and långbanite to zussmanite (in part 2).

Silica, Silicates is an outstandingly useful work. However, it is at the same time arid and could, in my view, be improved. Let me begin on the down side.

The volume’s aridity is no more than a measure of our age. A computerized typesetting system effectively has isolated the human hand from the printed page. To appreciate this, I invite the reader to compare the result with Dana’s last (7th) edition. Surprising is that the advantages of the computer were not put to use. Examples are afforded by the slavish use of a single type size, and by the large number of chemical compositions given in split and hard-to-follow columns. These compositions would have better been printed in unbroken columns, with the references given in short lines off to one side, perhaps in small type. No space would have been lost in adopting such a reader-friendly layout and in fact, additional compositions could have been given.

Why was the IMA nomenclature of pyroxenes (American Mineralogist, 73, 1123-1133; Can. Mineral. 27, 143-156) excluded? Omission from the listings of such old friends as acmite, hypersthene and salite demonstartes that the pyroxene purge was known to the authors at the time of writing. Also, a few notes (with diagrams?) giving summaries of the nomenclature of chlorites, clays, feldspars and so on would help to guide many readers. Then, I ask if it would not have been advantageous to list minerals under groups? Aluminosilicates, amphiboles, chlorites … zeolites, others. This would require an index, something that is absent in the current self-indexing volume.

Finally, "about half of the [900+] minerals are known from only a single locality" (Introduction, p. vi). Thus, the reader must swallow hard to accept that quartz, orthoclase and biotite (for example) are given no more space than are clinotobermorite, pitiglianoite, and so many other rarities.

Now to the up side. This is an immensely useful reference work, always keeping in mind that it "presents data, not the background necessary to use or understand it" (Introduction, p. v). Between four covers, one has an unprecedented concentration of mineralogical information. Silica, Silicates constitutes a basic fount for collectors and amateurs, and a pivotal starting gate for researchers and professionals. For the mineralogical and petrological fraternity, this volume will quickly assume the role of a standard essential reference.